CHARLESTON – A gay former lawmaker says he was discriminated against by his employer after he announced his engagement to his partner.
Joshua Higginbotham filed his complaint last month in Kanawha Circuit Court against Delta Defense LLC, Delta manager Brandon Tagayun and some unnamed defendants.
Delta Defense, which is based in Wisconsin, provides sales, marketing, operations and administrative support services to the United States Conceal Carry Association and is a licensed insurance agency in all 50 states. Tagayun is a former Charleston police officer who struck and killed a woman in a 2005 motor vehicle accident, resulting in a $2 million settlement by the city.
In June 2023, Higginbotham was hired as an account executive as both a sales associate and as a lobbyist.
According to the complaint, Higginbotham was told he had the opportunity to earn a six-figure salary including commissions. He says he rejected other employment opportunities to join Delta based on promises of the hiring team, which included Tagayun.
In August 2023, Higginbotham says he was officially registered as a paid lobbyist for the defendants to promote Second Amendment rights in West Virginia. He says he worked as a lobbyist for nearly a full year without incident. He says he testified before legislative committees and scheduled group sales meetings with large state organizations.
“The result was numerous group sales of memberships in favor of the defendants which should have yielded plaintiff with approximately $210,000.00 in commissions,” the complaint states.
In May 2024, Higginbotham publicly announced his engagement to his partner.
“Plaintiff was immediately contacted by Tagayun and informed he should not place on Facebook or any public media regarding his engagement or his sexual orientation,” the complaint states. “Defendant Tagayun specifically informed plaintiff that his sexual orientation might hurt the defendants’ business opportunities and ran contrary to the defendants’ beliefs.
“Defendant Tagayun specifically requested that plaintiff ‘hide’ his lobbyist registration with the defendants as a result of his sexual orientation.”
Higginbotham says he reported Tagayun’s conduct to Delta’s human resources department and was told the report would be addressed after it had substantiated his complaints.
But, he says Tagayun continued to be his supervisor and continued to harass and retaliate against Higginbotham.
“Defendant Tagayun would speak to the plaintiff on the telephone and attempt to record portions of the calls,” the complaint states. “Defendant Tagayun effectively ‘stalked’ plaintiff by parking outside his home and following him in his vehicle. …
“After plaintiff’s reports of defendant Tagayun’s conduct, he (Higginbotham) was removed from his lobbying duties and now renewed as a lobbyist for the 2025 Legislative session,” the complaint states. “Despite the group memberships brought in by the plaintiff, the defendants chose to evaluate his performance based solely on ‘individual’ memberships procured and omitting his group memberships altogether.”
Instead, Higginbotham says he was offered a Performance Improvement Plan under Tagayun or a separation agreement that would give him $3,750. He says he also was placed on administrative leave.
“Our client was very successful in signing up large, group memberships for the defendant’s non-profit, for which he is owed substantial commissions,” attorney Travis A. Griffith told The West Virginia Record. “These memberships provided valuable services for its members, and our client continues to stand behind the value those memberships provided.”
Higginbotham says he made numerous written demands for his commission earnings, but he says he still hasn’t been paid those commissions. He also notes that during a January national conference, a Delta official publicly boasted about one of Higginbotham’s group membership sales that would have paid him about $70,000.
He accuses the defendants of violating the West Virginia Wage Payment and Collection Act, breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, fraud in the inducement, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
Tagayun resigned from the Charleston Police Department in 2006 after being involved in an on-duty crash that killed a 69-year-old Fayette County woman. In March 2007, he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor charges, speeding and failure to use emergency lights in relation to the crash that happened as he was responding to an emergency call. He received one year of probation.
After the 2005 Charleston incident, Tagayun moved to California for a few years before returning to serve as a St. Albans police officer. In 2009, he was accused in a civil lawsuit of using excessive force in arresting a Nitro man in 2008.
In 2013, Tagayun sued after he says he was hit by a vehicle as he walked across a Charleston street. He says he was working as a police officer with the Metro Drug Unit at the time.
And in 2018, Tagayun was fired from the St. Albans force after an internal investigation showed – while Tagayun was a prevention resource officer at St. Albans – he engaged in sexual behavior while on duty, provided females under 21 with alcohol and drank with them while in uniform, was with females under 21 at bars in Wheeling and Fayetteville, left the city while on duty, did not answer several calls and had unauthorized individuals in his cruiser.
Sources at the time said Tagayun flirted with a St. Albans High senior and started a relationship with her days after she graduated, and he allegedly provided her and her friends alcohol, allowed them to use fake IDs to buy alcohol and took them to another officer’s house to drink alcohol.
A Poca native, Higginbotham first was elected to the House of Delegates in 2016 as a teenager. In 2021, he announced he was gay. He was the state’s first openly gay Republican lawmaker. Later that year, he announced plans to run for state Senate in 2022. He also resigned from the House because he moved out of his district.
In 2024, Higginbotham ran unsuccessfully in the race for state agriculture commissioner. And earlier this year, he launched a state chapter of Log Cabin Republicans, the nation’s original and largest organization representing LGBT conservatives and straight allies.
In his civil lawsuit, Higginbotham seeks compensatory damages, punitive damages, liquidated damages, attorney fees, court costs and other relief.
Higginbotham is being represented by Griffith of Griffith Law Center in Charleston and by Joseph H. Spano Jr. of Pritt & Spano in Charleston. The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay.
Kanawha Circuit Court case number 25-C-173